Chapter 5

Was it just her, or did the System messages suddenly sound like the words of a swindler?

“But this is better than being homeless…,” she muttered in self-consolation, gazing in turns at the neat status window and the dirty interior of the room.

She could clean up the dirty apartment. What mattered more was the fact that she had a place to stay.

“Well, at least the toilet works.”

She tested the water pressure in the bathroom just in case, and the faucet seemed to work just fine, producing a strong stream.

At least this meant one of the most important criteria of an apartment had been met.

She looked around the room, then sat down in one corner. A different kind of notification window blinked into view.

<Congratulations on achieving the dream—you are now the owner of a home!>

“Is this thing mocking me?” Huina said, closing the window in annoyance. Another one immediately appeared in its place.

<It is the duty of a homeowner to make this place warm and clean.>

“I’m not some professional house cleaner. How am I supposed to do that?” she muttered.

Whatever this was—it wasn’t the System, since the windows were different from those used by System messages—it seemingly had a smart response to her every comment.

<Such is the calling of a Housekeeper.>

“Calling! That’s rich.”

<This Housekeeper is mediocre. Much training is required.>

“What do you mean by that? Did I really get such a crummy house because I’m D-rank?” Huina fumed.

As if it wasn’t frustrating enough that her class was strange, and her rank low, being told that these were the reasons she’d been given this shoddy housing made her extremely upset.

“Who the hell are you? You’re not the System, are you? Get out here and explain yourself!” she shouted, squirming about like a drunk customer demanding to see the owner.

She didn’t think it was likely that whoever was speaking to her would actually show up, but this seemed to be the only way to take out her anger.

She was under severe mental fatigue at the moment. Ever since early morning, she’d vacillated between hope and despair more times than she could count.

She wasn’t some piece of metal that grew stronger with each successive tempering. The rapid fluctuations in emotions simply filled her with exhaustion and annoyance.

“Are you listening to me? If you were going to give me this crappy excuse for an apartment, you should at least compensate me!”

She was rattling off by herself when something suddenly rose out of the floor.

It looked pretty sizable, and she swung her hand automatically.

“Eeek! A bug!”

<System: Automatically activating the active skill “Pest Control (D)”!>

Her hand whooshed through the air, and something flew toward the wall.

It was soft, like jelly.

It soon bounced onto the dirty floor, and Huina dusted off her hand, watching carefully. Upon closer inspection, it turned out it wasn’t actually a bug, as she’d expected.

It was the size of her fist, and wriggled with difficulty as it said, “Housing... matches... abilities... Compensation... unnecessary...”

“Wait, you’re the thing that was giving me those messages?”

Huina quickly lowered her guard and approached the creature.

She realized it had the appearance of a snail, and though it was pretty big, it didn’t look as gross as a real snail.

It had a cute gray shell and a pink body that was plump, like a gummy.

“Violent... response... must... protest...”

The snail muttered unintelligibly for some time, unable to recover from the slap.

She felt a little pity for the creature as it said such things with its tiny, cute body, and she waited for it to recover.

“Homeowner... personality analysis complete! Hot tempered! Violent!”

It criticized her harsh behavior as soon as it rallied.

She apologized.

“Sorry if that hurt. I was just surprised. You looked like a bug, and you popped up out of nowhere...”

Her irritation at the state of the apartment aside, she wasn’t the sort of person who could be rude to an actual person—or, in this case, a snail.

The snail stuck out its stalks and swung them about delicately, almost as if displaying its annoyance.

“You attack first, ask questions later. Nasty personality!”

“Hey, it’s not my fault I was surprised. That’s mean.”

“You are the perpetrator. No excuses for you.”

The snail sure could talk.

Huina bent over and stared at the creature. She couldn’t tell where its eyes were, but she made eye contact with what she thought were the eyes.

“Were you the one who congratulated me earlier? And mentioned the duty of a homeowner, or something along those lines?”

The two antennae waved up and down, almost as if the creature was nodding.

“Affirmative,” it said.

“Then what are you? You’re not the System, and you appeared seemingly out of nowhere. I’ve never heard of anything like you.”

“Of course not. I am a very special snail,” it stated, its antennae standing stiff and upright.

The small gesture was enough to convey a message of immense arrogance from the palm-sized creature.

<I am the Home Administrator of the skill Home Sweet Home.>

* * *

Huina had a great many things to do as a victim of the latest dungeon gate spawn.

The first item on her list was cleaning herself off. She washed up at a public bath and bought some new clothes, changing into them. Only then did she feel refreshed and capable of thinking about her next steps.

Thankfully, she had money. She’d put a credit card into her pocket, not wanting to bother with her wallet, and it was now proving immensely useful.

“I’ll go to the community service center for a temporary ID, get myself a new phone, and...”

She counted the necessary tasks and items on her fingers. There was so much to do that she was almost grateful that she was jobless.

“And... I’ll also need daily supplies, cleaning equipment, and more clothes.”

There was so much. She couldn’t afford to be sitting around like this. Getting off the bench, she headed for the community service center.

Because she’d added her name to the victims' list yesterday, she was issued her temporary ID in no time.

Because of how many dungeons had spawned over the last decade or so, the government handled the necessary paperwork at close to light speed.

The civil servants working for the government department in charge of dungeons were placed on infamous amounts of overtime.

In any case, Huina used her ID to get herself a new phone—an essential item if she wanted to be treated like the citizen she was in this country. Without one, she’d be able to do nothing.

It would let her contact her brother right away, and she also needed it to find herself a new job.

My savings will tide me over for the time being, but I can’t stay unemployed forever.

Huina texted her brother to tell him she was safe, and to get in touch when he got out of whatever dungeon he was in.

Communications devices from the real world did not work inside a dungeon, so he wouldn’t see her message right away. But she needed to contact him, regardless.

“Ugh.” Huina sighed after sending her message. Her heart was heavy at the thought of looking for a new job.

Despite the considerably worsened state of affairs since the dungeons first appeared, there were still plenty of college graduates out there. Huina had been forced to seek out a job immediately after graduating high school, and she was always a step behind the college grads in terms of academic record and salary.

“In this economy, even skilled workers find it hard to find employment... Will I be able to find a job anytime soon?”

She shook her head, pushing away her worries.

“I can’t mope around right now! Huina Lee! Think about what you need to do right now!”

At least the current situation was better than when the first dungeons had spawned, and her brother and she had been left orphans.

The hell that had broken loose then had been mostly handled, and there was a support system in place for victims.

What’s more, I’m a metahuman now, considerations of class aside.

Her class was bizarre, but it had saved her life and gotten her a free home.

That was extremely lucky, in a sense.

Thinking about her abilities reminded her of the gray-shelled snail that waited for her at home.

It had been adamant that she needed to clean the apartment as soon as possible.

“We started off on the wrong foot. It’ll raise a ruckus if I’m late,” she muttered, thinking of the snail’s head, which had seemed soft and mushy.

Once they became good friends, she would try slapping that head to see how it felt...

* * *

“Ugh, this stuff is so heavy!”

Huina entered her apartment, both hands full of things she’d bought.

<Slow movement. Unfit to be a Housekeeper.>

She was welcomed with a round of criticism.

Huina had been a working adult for five years, however, and such trivial lecturing couldn’t shake her.

“Ugh! Good thing I can summon the door from anywhere. Otherwise, my arms would have fallen off. The place is such a mess, it cost over two hundred thousand won just to buy the cleaning equipment!” she lamented loudly.

The snail swung its antennae about unforgivingly.

<Owner. Not frugal enough! Price comparisons are a must.>

She had no idea how an administrator snail that had come with her Home Sweet Home skill knew about comparing prices.

She refused to be talked down to.

“I had too much to do today. It would have been a waste of time to visit multiple shops and compare all the prices. It’s better to simply purchase good products at an acceptable price. Ever heard the saying that time is gold?”

She arrayed her purchases on the floor, complaining about how packed her day had been.

She placed the bathroom cleaning tools, the house cleaning tools, and the basic living supplies each in their own group. It was a habit of hers to organize her purchases after a grocery haul.

The snail flicked its antennae, seemingly watching Huina’s quick hand movements. Then it said begrudgingly,

<Reasonable thinking... I must admit.>

“I know, right? So you can be agreeable at times.”

She grinned.

She would have been quite depressed in her outlook had she been alone, but she had a cute snail to keep her company. That made her feel a little better.